John stood front and center next to Seline and listened to the priest give a eulogy. This wasn’t the first funeral he had attended in the past few days, and it wouldn’t be the last. But this one stung even him. John had seen enough in his long life that he didn’t believe in some almighty power, but he sat through the man’s words because it was the right thing to do.
He glanced over at Seline, who had only been released from Hawthorne’s care the day prior. She leaned awkwardly on the crutches as she stared silently at the pine casket that held Sheriff Wyatt Blackwood. While she was quiet, she was not unmoved by the proceedings. John could see tears streaming down her face.
She wasn’t the only one crying. There were a lot of other women and a few men crying over the man’s passing. While John’s original opinion of the man had been one of disgust and pity, Blackwood had stepped up when things got tough. And he had saved John’s life more than once. He would be missed.
Once the eulogy was finished, John and five other men helped lower the casket into the ground.
“The next ceremony will be in four hours,” the priest spoke up.
A few people wished the departed Sheriff a peaceful afterlife before hurrying off. It felt a bit shallow to John, but there was so much work to do that he couldn’t hold it against anyone.
Once it was only Seline, him, and Cassi standing quietly off to the side, Seline hobbled toward the open grave.
John stepped back to wait near Cassi, giving the young Deputy space to greave.
Cassi reached out and quietly wrapped her hand in his, giving it a slight squeeze, which he returned.
The comfort was nice.
After ten minutes Seline finished what she had to say and turned toward them. She saw them holding hands and a slight smile flittered across the woman’s sad face before she approached. “John, could I speak with you at the jail?”
He nodded and released Cassi’s hand as he followed along next to Seline. They could have made better time, but he was in no hurry. It seemed like the Deputy had some heavy thoughts on her mind as she was quiet the entire trip.
Once they arrived, she carefully sat behind her desk and let out a quiet sigh of relief. John sat opposite her and waited to hear what the woman had to say.
“I heard what Jacob said to you. That he was your son?”
He exhaled before responding. “While I don’t want to believe that to be the case, it seems likely,” he said in defeat. “I could see the features of his mother in his face, along with some of my own.”
She nodded at that. “I heard what you did. After I shot him and passed out. He wasn’t dead was he?”
John shook his head.
“That couldn’t have been easy, I’m sorry,” she pinched her eyes shut and sighed.
“I’m not,” John stated frankly. “He was a monster that needed to be put down. Whether he was my father, brother, or son, that wouldn’t have changed. I’m only sorry I sired such a deplorable bastard.”
Seline seemed slightly surprised by his tone but she didn’t comment on it. Instead, the woman glanced over at the empty desk across from hers. Then she opened a drawer on her desk and pulled something out before sliding it across the desktop.
John caught the metal object before it slid off and examined it. “What is this?”
“It’s Wyatt’s badge. I want you to have it.”
John slid the badge back toward her as he shook his head. “I’m not the man you want to be Sheriff, Seline. My idea of conflict resolution is through violence or at the end of a gun. I would make an awful Sheriff. The town needs someone with a far more gentle hand than mine.”
“If not you, then who?” the woman asked tiredly.
John just quirked his eyes at the Deputy.
“What? You mean me?” she asked. “I’m hardly even qualified to be a deputy.”
John leaned back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other. “I might have agreed with that assessment back when I first arrived. But I think we both know you’ve grown since then. And who better to take over than Blackwood’s original Deputy?”
She didn’t seem convinced, letting her hand fall away from the badge. “Does that mean you’re leaving then? I can’t imagine you would stay after Novarez died.”
John smiled. “Eager to get rid of me now that I declined your offer?”
“Wh- What, no I-,” John held up his hand to stop the flustered woman.
“I was teasing. Daniel’s death does change some things for me, but I’ll send a letter to his father. He won’t be happy that his only son is dead, but he won’t hold the death against me. Bartem isn’t Daniel. I think if you ever met the man, you’d like him. As for what I plan to do… I’m not sure. For the immediate future, I plan on sticking around.”
“Because of Madam Cassandra?” she asked with a knowing smirk, teasing him this time. He found her ability to openly tease him a good sign.
He shrugged. “Partially. I want to stick around to make sure the town gets back on its feet as well. You can also rely on me to help with any problems that arise, Sheriff Seline.”
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She sighed in defeat. “Those words together sound so strange. How do I know I’ll live up to the title?”
“You simply try to the best of your abilities. That’s all anyone can do.”
With one last sigh, she reached up and unpinned her deputy badge and set it on the desk before putting Wyatt’s old badge in its place.
“It feels heavier,” she commented.
“Added responsibility tends to be,” John said as he stood.
***
Pappy Klein strolled through the streets of Ember Creek, purposefully ignoring the angry glares the townsfolk sent his way. They survived, what did they have to be mad at him for? It’s not like they would have come to help if his family had been under siege.
It had been a few weeks since the battle and other than damaged buildings, the streets were absent of blood and bodies. He had watched them clean up the dead so he knew just how many attackers there had been. The blood had been washed away by two back-to-back thunderstorms.
It was a pity Smith had destroyed the airship and the cannons on board. Not that Pappy was all that inclined to drag the heavy artillery pieces back to his homestead in the mountains, but he would have if they had been left intact. He might still be able to salvage them, but it really wasn’t worth the effort.
As he was passing an alleyway, a hand reached out and yanked him into it. His first response was to reach for a blade, but an iron grip on his wrist stopped that from happening. Before he could think to reach with his offhand, a blade was pressed up against his throat and he froze.
“John,” he stated. The man had somehow gotten the drop on him, something nobody had done since he was in his early twenties. He knew the gunslinger was dangerous, but he was forced to reassess just how much.
“What do you think you’re doing here?” the man demanded quietly.
“I’m just out for a stroll,” he stated calmly.
John pushed the blade deeper, drawing a bit of blood, but Pappy didn’t flinch.
“Do you think this is some fucking joke?” the man growled. “You think you can sit back and abandon Ember Creek when shit gets tough and then just expect everything to be the same as it was before?”
“What would you have done in my position, John? Would you have thrown your entire family into a meat grinder that had nothing to do with you and had a slim hope of success?”
The man pinning him to the wall sneered but released him.
“I see that you agree with my actions.”
“I understand them, I don’t agree with them. I think you and your entire family are fucking cowards. Don’t expect a warm reception, or for anyone here to put up with you or your family's bullshit going forward,” John stated coldly. Then with a feat of dexterity even Pappy couldn’t mimic, the man made the knife vanish into its holster. “You want your family to stop being treated like outsiders, then stop acting like you are.”
After he said his peace, the gunslinger turned his back on Pappy and strode out of the alley. That act as much as anything else the man had done today surprised Pappy. He couldn’t recall the last time someone turned their back on him. The last man who had done it got a knife to the kidney. And while Pappy’s hand itched to draw his blade, he resisted the impulse of his youth. It didn’t help that his hand was shaking from the encounter.
***
As the years passed, Ember Creek recovered it even grew as more people moved out west. But not everyone was happy with how things were.
John was sitting in his rocking chair on the porch, staring at the stars while his wife and son were asleep. He would join them soon, he just couldn’t sleep tonight. Something had his hackles up all day and he learned to trust his instincts long ago.
A man came rushing out of the darkness with a knife and a hate-filled look on his face.
“I’m gonna gut you like you gutted my father,” the young man stated coldly as he rushed for John. He recognized the man and shook his head slightly as he raised the pneuma pistol he had tucked next to him. The young man’s eyes went wide, but John fired before he could do anything but look surprised.
After dispatching the attacker, John checked on his wife Cassi and his son Wyatt. Both were still sound asleep. He let them sleep and walked to town to wake up Sheriff Seline.
“John? What time is it?” she asked as she came to the door wearing her nightclothes and a shawl to keep the chill away.
“Sorry to bother you so late, but I received an unwanted visitor.”
She sighed. “Are they dead?”
He simply nodded.
“Let me get dressed. While I do that, you might as well go fetch the undertaker.”
“Mom?” a young voice asked from inside the home.
“Go back to bed, Dear.”
John left the woman to get dressed and tend to her kid.
Yes, Seline had eventually got married, and to everyone’s surprise, she married Billy, the son of the General Store owner. It was a surprise because the boy was rather simple. He wasn’t stupid or anything, but Seline had seemed more enchanted by the more exotic type of man. John had also thought Billy was courting that one young woman, but that appeared not to have gone anywhere. Either that, or they died in the fighting or left the town soon after the railway was restored. There was a fair share of people who headed back to civilization after that happened.
As for John marrying Cassi, it had never really been his intention. They both knew he would age at a much slower rate than her, but she had convinced him that it would be worth it. And she was right like she was most of the time.
John retrieved the undertaker and the man offered him a ride in his new autowagon. He accepted the generous offer and rode along. Like most new automatons in town, they ran off of Soul Stone and there was no more puff puff of steam, making it a quiet trip back to his house outside the city.
The discovery of the resource had brought about more changes than John could hope to understand. The eccentric artificer, Uncle Travis had moved back to New Gata where he trained apprentices to do what he did before retiring due to old age a few years ago.
Sheriff Seline was there by the time he arrived.
“You know who this is don’t you?” she asked.
John nodded.
“Deputy Charles, work with the undertaker to clean up this mess, John, you get to come with me to explain this mess to Pappy.”
When they arrived outside the ostentatious Mansion that Pappy had built on the old outskirts of Ember Creek, John couldn’t help but cringe at the gross display of wealth. The government never acquiesced to Pappy’s claim that he was a sovereign nation. But the Kleins had become filthy rich by selling off their homestead and the mineral rights below it. All because people wanted access to the Soul Stone mines.
There were other mines around the area, but the Kleins had one of the largest deposits discovered so far.
Seline strode up and knocked on the door. A butler, of all things, answered. “Yes?”
“I need to speak with Pappy about one of his grandchildren,” Seline stated.
“Very well, please wait here and I will go wake the master.”
After ten minutes, they heard running footsteps. The door was yanked open and the shaken butler tried to run past them. John grabbed the man before he got far.
“He’s- he’s dead!” the man managed to get out.
Seline pulled out her weapon and went into the house. She came back after a few minutes. “Seems maybe your attacker killed Pappy first.”
The fallout of Pappy’s death was the defining incident that fractured the Klein family. They all fought over his remaining fortune, which was apparently nothing. Pappy had spent every dime of his money and left nothing behind other than a house nobody wanted or could afford. John might have found that tragic if the family hadn’t constantly flaunted their power and then their wealth after they became rich. The world would be better off without them.
With none of the young boy’s death landing on John’s head, he returned to the quiet life to raise his son and spend what little time he could with Cassi. Eventually, his peaceful life would end, but he would cherish every moment of it while he could.
